This study is testing 4 potential HIV vaccines. Two vaccines are made from modified vaccinia virus, which was developed to protect against smallpox. The other two vaccines are made from fowlpox virus vaccine, which protects birds from poxvirus infection. The viruses used in these vaccines have been changed so the CANNOT cause infection. The vaccines used may also contain man-made look-alike genes found in HIV. Genes are the basic biological units of life. They instruct cells to make proteins. Proteins are natural substances that the body makes to build and maintain itself. When you are vaccinated with the study vaccines, the genes will tell the cells in your body to make certain proteins. The proteins are all very similar to proteins found in the HIV virus. Those proteins CANNOT grow in human cells or cause an HIV infection. The scientists working on this study will run tests to see if your body reacts to these proteins. We are currently looking for 15 healthy HIV-negative volunteers to participate in this trial that will last 13 months.

The purpose of this study is to test two study HIV vaccines to see how the body responds to them. The vaccines are experimental and at this early stage of testing we do not think they will protect anyone against HIV. In fact we are not testing to see whether they will protect anyone against HIV; we are really looking at how the body responds. The vaccines have been given to over 100 people before in other studies. The use of the vaccines in this study is based on the absence of serious safety concerns in those other studies. To date, the vaccines have been well tolerated. The vaccines do not contain live or killed HIV, so there is NO possibility of getting HIV from them. There will be 66 people nationwide in this study. We are currently looking for 9 healthy HIV-negative volunteers to participate in this trial that will last 12 months.